Quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
font color="#ffccff">Can you give me a link or something to where these statistics are being compiled? I tried finding it on my sources and at the UN sites but no one seems to be actually tracking the numbers you are talking about. 
I am sure you blame the deaths if any on the US and UN sanctions...but how is it that Saddam has money enough to maintain his military and he is still buying equipment from russia...wouldnt it be better to blame the guy who is misappropriating the money?
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The problem I have with the sanction is that the hit the wrong people (and as the example with chorine shows, Iraq can't buy what it needs to purify water) - and as you said, Saddam can still get hold of some weaponry. But Iraq's armed forces have been scaled down from 1.000.000+ at the time of the Gulf War to around 350.000(?) today. Secondly - Iraq (and Saddam) does not control what the money from the oil-for-food program is used for. A lot of it was used to pay war-reparations to Kuwait. So Iraq smuggles oil and buys what it feels it need for the money.
And I sure Saddam can think of a very good reason to maintain his military - the forign 'horde' standing on the border
P.S. Got the number (ca. 1.5 million) from a very reliable radio-program - so I don't have a written scource.
P.P.S. What weapons from Russia??